


There, Wolf

by JazzRaft



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Humor, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 16:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: Sometimes Noctis was too noble for his own good. Where Prompto would have heeded the local warnings about a werewolf and run the other way, Noctis strode straight forward into the den of danger. This time, quite literally.





	There, Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> For FFXV Halloween Week! Also posting on [tumblr!](https://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/188633114972/there-wolf)

“Are you sure we need to be doing this?” Prompto whined.

“This thing’s dangerous,” Gladio said, matter-of-factly. “It might hurt someone, or worse.”

“Yeah, _I know_. Why do _we_ need to be the ones to prove that?”

“Because no one else will.”

Prompto groaned in response to Noct’s heroic declaration. Sometimes, he was too noble for his own good – definitely too much for Prompto’s own good. Where Prompto would have heeded the local warnings and run the other way, Noctis strode straight forward into the den of danger. This time, quite literally.

“You remember what they say about poking a sleeping behemoth?” Prompto put out there as they crept into the caverns. “How you’re _not_ supposed to do that? No? Was I the only one paying attention in the wildlife safety assemblies?”

“You were definitely the only one not paying attention to the hunter’s bounty,” Noctis mumbled, petulantly.

Prompto fixed the back of his head with a glare, as if he could stare some sense of self-preservation into his friend’s thick skull. They didn’t have to accept _every_ bounty the local tipsters rolled out for them. There were other hunters – _professional_ hunters, for that matter – who were better suited to these jobs than a few city boys on a seasonal road-trip through scenic Duscae.

It was just supposed to be a week of camping around the countryside. Just a nice, simple getaway from the bustling city. Noctis could get some fishing in before the season was completely over, Prompto could get some pictures of the woods while their leaves were changing, and Gladio could get his camping fix in – the guy loved to camp. Ignis came along for the ride because he was convinced that they would all die without him. Noctis had taken offense, but Prompto had not. Especially when the Prince started gravitating towards wanted posters like he was a bounty hunter in a video game.

To Prompto’s shock and dismay though, Ignis had not been doing a great deal of dissuading his wayward prince from hunting down the dangerous beasts that plagued Duscae’s aspiring agriculturists.

“I’m rather curious about this one,” Ignis said in his own defense, once he felt Prompto’s accusing glare turn on him next. “It sounds far too outlandish to believe, and yet the people seem convinced.”

“So you just _have_ to see it for yourself? Seriously? Have any of you ever seen a monster movie? You three would be the first ones to die. Noct, specifically.”

Noct stuck his tongue out at him. Because hunting an alleged shape-shifting wolf-beast thing regressed them all to the state of twelve year olds. Good headspace to go into this with, Prompto thought, bitterly. This was so not how he wanted to die, bones moldering in the pit of a wolf monster’s rancid den for some other doomed adventurer to trip over in the next decade.

“You worry too much,” Gladio informed him, his big, booming voice too loud in the monster’s lair. “It’s probably nothing, anyways.”

“You know what they say about assuming, right?”

“You’re worrying an awful lot about what ‘they’ say, and not enough about what _I_ say,” Noctis hissed, waving a hand to silence them.

Prompto had no idea if he was just annoyed with listening to them, or if he heard something in the shadows. He’d be less offended by the former than the latter. At least he’d get to live to annoy Noctis another day then. Even if he did get mauled to death though, Prompto vowed, right then and there, that he would continue to annoy Noctis with his mantra of “I told you so,” even in death. He wanted his inevitable demise to haunt the Prince until the day he died – assuming Noctis didn’t also die with him. With his luck, he wouldn’t. It was always the ones who didn’t ask for it that went down first.

The three of them quieted and stilled at Noct’s gesture, scanning the dimness around them. Ignis shone his flashlight ahead of them in search of some ghastly beast, which Prompto wanted to slap him for, giving away their location like that. Not that it mattered, he reasoned. The thing probably had night vision anyway. Or a heightened sense of smell for human flesh. It likely didn’t need any assistance from them to come howling out of the night.

Suddenly, Prompto heard a hiss in the cave. Rocks sliding down the slope. The pattering click of nails on stone. His heart came barreling up into his throat, beating inside his ears and begging him to abandon his friends and run the other way. Every man for himself!

Noct’s fingers twitched at his hip, crystal dust twinkling at his fingertips, ready to draw his sword in their defense. Noble, really, if it hadn’t been his fault they were in danger in the first place. If they lived through this, Prompto was never letting him live it down. Gladio steadied a hand on his shoulder, nearly making him jump out of his skin. All three of them stared into the darkness, listening for the sounds of the creature.

The descriptions had been vague, the motives behind the bounty mysterious, thus Noct’s interest. It was only after the Prince was assaulted by the terrible beast that they all understood why.

A low, gruff sound barked from the shadows. Prompto flinched back as a lumbering shadow came rushing forward towards them. Ignis and Gladio both shouted for Noctis to get out of the way, Gladio valiantly shoving Prompto behind him at the same time he stepped forward to protect Noctis – he was the real MVP of this horror movie scenario, Prompto thought, distantly. They all moved too slowly, though. It was too late! The beast descended on Noctis in a blur of matted gray fur and drooling yellow teeth.

“Noct!”

Prompto lunged forward, feeling for his gun in the middle of the armiger once he heard his friend’s yelp of surprise. Noctis might have been content leading them all to their deaths, but Prompto was not about to let him die for it, too! All of them jumped forward, guns and swords blazing as Noctis struggled beneath the beast.

Then they all came reeling to a stop when they heard him _laughing_. Prompto thought that he must have been hysterical or something. Maybe he’d gone mad in the instant all of their fears had been realized. But as they came closer and their flashlights illuminated the “beast” that had attacked them, everything made sense.

“There’s your fearsome werewolf, Prompto,” Gladio chuckled, shaking his head in exasperation.

“I should have figured as much,” Ignis sighed, crossing his arms. “And before you ask, no Noct, we can’t keep him.”

“Fine, fine, whatever you say Specs,” Noctis said between giggles.

The big shaggy _dog_ was tickling his face with excited licks, a bushy tail thumping back and forth. It had a collar hidden in its main of fur and everything, mud-spattered and frayed around the edges. Prompto had no idea if it was all a hoax, or if someone just put a lost pet request to the wrong number.

“Wow, Noct,” he said, the exhaustion left behind by his anxiety dropping into him like a lead weight. “Just. Wow.”


End file.
